Bachmann 94XX Next18

Kit: MX658N18 with optional stay-alive LifeLInk + 4x 470uF Flat Tantalums

Bachmann 2021 model of the GWR 94XX Pannier is similarly excellent like all of their recent Next18 OO tank releases. It comes with a reasonable SugarCube-style speaker on board as well as a good firebox glow light.

DCC Sound can be added incredibly easily by just removing the blanking plate and putting in a Zimo MX658N18 sound decoder.

Stay-alive is quite straight-forward too, though there are not any dedicated solder pads for common positive and ground, there are exposed PCB vias that can be soldered to. We construct our stay-alive, which is a LifeLink with 4x 470uF Flat Tantalum capacitors.

The stay-alive is wrapped in Kapton tape and will slide into the top of the boiler later.

You can see the connection points here for common positive (BLUE wire) and ground (GREY wire). Make sure you put some Kapton tape or similar over these so that the decoder does not touch the solder joints you have made.

Here you see the decoder plugged in, and the stay-alive loosely balanced on top before inserting into the boiler when the body goes back on.

Note that this model seems to run best with a BackEMF CV#56=22.

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